The War Within 11.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[Worldshaper]

Lightbound orcs are literally regular orcs with yellow glowing stuff slapped on them.

Also, why does it say confidential? It's not some top secret government project. At most it would say work in progress.

Fake.

I am also highly skeptical of the image.

But I could see them labelling it as confidential just to make it super clear to anybody previewing it in the room that it shouldn't be shared or photographed.

Honestly, if this were to be genuine, then I feel like it's a scene which is super out of context for us to the degree that we simply can't interpret it right now.

Could be literally ANYTHING.

Two agents of the Burning Legion having just arrived on a world to scout for something?
OH but it turns out that's just a flashback from Azeroth's history?
OH and that's because the Old Gods are showing us some kind of vision to convince us why the Titans are bad?

Just like Alex and Koranos didn't really make sense at one point.

[Teriz]

Lightbound orcs are literally regular orcs with yellow glowing stuff slapped on them.

It’s quite possible that Blizzard would upgrade their appearance to make them look different than standard orcs if they’re an adversary.

[Sondrelk]

I am also highly skeptical of the image.

But I could see them labelling it as confidential just to make it super clear to anybody previewing it in the room that it shouldn't be shared or photographed.

Honestly, if this were to be genuine, then I feel like it's a scene which is super out of context for us to the degree that we simply can't interpret it right now.

Could be literally ANYTHING.

Two agents of the Burning Legion having just arrived on a world to scout for something?
OH but it turns out that's just a flashback from Azeroth's history?
OH and that's because the Old Gods are showing us some kind of vision to convince us why the Titans are bad?

Just like Alex and Koranos didn't really make sense at one point.

What is even the point of labelling it confidential though. I doubt anything like this would be shown to anyone who could beon the fence about breaking the NDA. Do leakers just assume that there are big leak showcases internally at Blizzard HQ? Everyone goes to the big auditorium during lunch break to see the new cinematic, and then for said cinematic to be labelled as confidential?

And as I mentioned before. Never in the games existence has there been a verified leak that couldnt have been explained by leaked press kits or improperly encrypted webpages. Why would there now be someone willing to torpedo their own professional career to show a low res image?

[Dracullus]

Somehow this image feels legit for me. Either this or guy behind leak is really smart, many people after work with image would put elaborate 2 page summary of fake expansion as "leak".

Definitely first person look like Orc, likely twisted in some way. Background of course is much more interesting.

That's definitely an Orc. An undead Orc? Perhaps a death knight?

There is Nazgrim. But DKs just got spotlight in SL.

[Sondrelk]

extremely confidential - read what restrictions cd-procject employees had (cyberpunk 2077) the company went to great lengths to avoid pre-release leaks - and now - if what I wrote turns out to be true, it will be an earthquake in lore wow. (Cataclysm will look like a sleepy Wednesday``

If it's that confidential then it wouldnt be labelled Confidential in big obscuring letters. It would be absolutely plastered with semi-transparent code like "NProg15.03.06.23" to be able to immediately identify what specific computer it came from, and when.

[Worldshaper]

What is even the point of labelling it confidential though. I doubt anything like this would be shown to anyone who could beon the fence about breaking the NDA. Do leakers just assume that there are big leak showcases internally at Blizzard HQ? Everyone goes to the big auditorium during lunch break to see the new cinematic, and then for said cinematic to be labelled as confidential?

And as I mentioned before. Never in the games existence has there been a verified leak that couldnt have been explained by leaked press kits or improperly encrypted webpages. Why would there now be someone willing to torpedo their own professional career to show a low res image?

I'm just guessing. IIRC, though, they at least used to have showcases between teams. Not sure now. I'm not even here to defend the image, because I think it's 90% sure to be fake. Just offering possible explanations to various things.

[Cheezits]

https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com...aces/night-elf

Lo and behold, the other heritage armor tint for Nelves is on their race page. Secret quest or next week?

[Ersula]

https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com...aces/night-elf

Lo and behold, the other heritage armor tint for Nelves is on their race page. Secret quest or next week?

I honestly believe then they don't include a certain recolor of a heritage armor, they just forgot. And they don't care enough to fix it. Orcs & Humans got all the recolors of their armor. Alternate colors of the Dwarf, Goblin, Worgen & Tauren heritage armor don't exist. But the Silver & Purple recolors of the Lightforge heritage? And Red recolor of the Nightborne heritage armor? They just forgot. And whats worse is a few years from now they'll just appear on the Trading Post for 650 currency.

[Sentynel]

extremely confidential - read what restrictions cd-procject employees had (cyberpunk 2077) the company went to great lengths to avoid pre-release leaks - and now - if what I wrote turns out to be true, it will be an earthquake in lore wow. (Cataclysm will look like a sleepy Wednesday``

There's quite a difference between a brand new AAA game and the 10th expansion pack for a 20 year old game. No reason to label it confidential.

But I could see them labelling it as confidential just to make it super clear to anybody previewing it in the room that it shouldn't be shared or photographed.

And honestly, who would preview it besides the people actually working on it? RandomJoe messing with shadow effects presenting the progress he made to his team lead. Why is it supposed to be confidential?

Fake.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

The text is misaligned,—which is suitable to the idea it's ML-generated because any text would likely have to be added manually,—the design looks very strange and out-of-place, the design in the background looks weird and very much brings to mind the kind of thing that an ML art program might generate in the background. I'm of the mind it looks fake. Due to the way in which the text is misaligned, I'm even of the mind he might have added it after he took the photo.

[Nymrohd]

But DKs just got spotlight in SL.

They did? I mean they were supposed to but did they really?

[Ersula]

What is even the point of labelling it confidential though. I doubt anything like this would be shown to anyone who could beon the fence about breaking the NDA.

Literally any employee at the company? That's why they make everyone at a gaming studio sign an NDA, because it would be too much trouble to try to lock off what everyone's working on from the entire building. Typically the production files are all coded with a unique watermark so they can track who leaked it, but if it was placed under "confidential" that would explain why its cropped this way.

There's quite a difference between a brand new AAA game and the 10th expansion pack for a 20 year old game. No reason to label it confidential.

Everybody watermarks everything before its officially revealed. Considering they have a convention that revolves around this thing & wow subs represent millions of dollars in Activision revenue of course its watermarked.

[Hitei]

Literally any employee at the company? That's why they make everyone at a gaming studio sign an NDA, because it would be too much trouble to try to lock off what everyone's working on from the entire building. Typically the production files are all coded with a unique watermark so they can track who leaked it, but if it was placed under "confidential" that would explain why its cropped this way.

Teams are sequestered by building.

[Sondrelk]

Literally any employee at the company? That's why they make everyone at a gaming studio sign an NDA, because it would be too much trouble to try to lock off what everyone's working on from the entire building. Typically the production files are all coded with a unique watermark so they can track who leaked it, but if it was placed under "confidential" that would explain why its cropped this way.Everybody watermarks everything before its officially revealed. Considering they have a convention that revolves around this thing & wow subs represent millions of dollars in Activision revenue of course its watermarked.

What I mean is, why would the devs show it to anyone that wouldn't already be trusted with a strict NDA? Are they afraid the janitor will come in and leak what he saw on his favorite subreddit?

And as I said before, that watermark doesn't do jack. Might as well label it "SECRET" or "DONT LINK ON FORUMS".
A watermark is used when you ideally want to trace it back to the source. And for stuff like WoW development that uses proprietary software I imagine such watermarks would include employee identifications numbers.

[vintage79]

[QUOTE=Sentynel;54211163]There's quite a difference between a brand new AAA game and the 10th expansion pack for a 20 year old game. No reason to label it confidential.

yes but actually no - it's an old game and a 10th expansion but e.g. Shadowlands' has sold 3.7 million copies

[Ersula]

Teams are sequestered by building.

And 1 of blizzards teams represent everyone working on WoW. But they would also be showing the cinematic to upper management & there's a whole janitorial service who goes in & out of that building throughout the day. Not to mention how people occasionally get moved from one team to another in the middle of production.

What I mean is, why would the devs show it to anyone that wouldn't already be trusted with a strict NDA? Are they afraid the janitor will come in and leak what he saw on his favorite subreddit?

Well they wouldn't. The watermark is just a reminder. As well as making it clear, if it is leaked, its not a finish product: Like when sometimes footage carries the "this represents footage still under development."

[Echil46]

To be fair, it does look like an orc with the bone structure of the Laughin Orc Mask.

[Palapop]

No, they literally weren't.

SL's leak was a screenshot of the store and a screenshot of the Bastion blurb.
The DF leak in question was a low res screenshot of the cinematic.

Why are you making claims about things you don't know anything about?

There was SL box leak way before Bolvar store SS.
It depicted Bastion or w/e that big white castle was.

On that 1 we also had "dark ranger customization" with pre-order.

So yeah.... Stick your arrogance where Sun doesnt shine.

[Sentynel]

Literally any employee at the company? That's why they make everyone at a gaming studio sign an NDA, because it would be too much trouble to try to lock off what everyone's working on from the entire building. Typically the production files are all coded with a unique watermark so they can track who leaked it, but if it was placed under "confidential" that would explain why its cropped this way.

You know that different teams have no or limited access to each other's work? Why would someone working on Diablo have access to a work in progress, supposedly "confidential" WoW cinematic?

Everybody watermarks everything before its officially revealed. Considering they have a convention that revolves around this thing & wow subs represent millions of dollars in Activision revenue of course its watermarked.

That's the thing. It's not watermark. It's just slapped onto the footage with fucking 72 Arial bold font size saying CONFIDENTIAL just to look somewhat credible.

Still fake.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

To be fair, it does look like an orc with the bone structure of the Laughin Orc Mask.

It looks to me like it has a small number of elements from Fyrakk, like the strongly-pointed chin. He may have been used as an input in the prompt.